Manchester all-female four-piece PINS (Faith Vern, Anna Donigan, Lois Macdonald and Sophie Galpin) will be in town at the 7th Street Entry in Minneapolis
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Manchester, UK all female band PINS lived up to their moniker, playing a sharp, diamond-in-the-rough hour-long set at the 7th Street Entry in Minneapolis, but still managed to work in â€œa little funâ€ as well.

The evening began with a brief set from locals, Strange Relations, self-described as a â€œhi-fi bedroom popâ€ band, who put out an album called â€“Centrism, earlier this spring.

The trio (Casey Sowa- Drums; Marisa Helgeson- Synth/Bass; and Nate Hart-Andersen- Guitar) play psychedelic tinged with a hint of shoegaze blend of indie pop that was well received by the gathering crowd, despite the band being a late add-on to the bill.

Speaking of shoegaze, PINS counts bands like My Bloody Valentine, and Jesus and Mary Chain as influences, which was on display as they started their set after a short intermission break.

PINS: Lois McDonald

The Manchester four-piece (Faith Holgate- vocals/guitar; Lois McDonald- guitar; Anna Donigan- bass; Sophie Galpin-drums) added another member to fill out their live sound and opened with â€˜Lost Lost Lostâ€™ from 2013 debut full-length, Girls Like Us.

â€˜Baby Bhangsâ€™ was next, the opening track from new release, Wild Nights (on Bella Union/PIAS America) which shows the musical growth of the band after just a couple years and the aftereffect of opening for bands like Sleater-Kinney, Babes in Toyland, and Drenge.

The ladies were clearly excited for the crowd to hear the new record, playing all but three songs from Wild Nights with Holgate, in black leather shorts, looking mostly focused on her guitar, while fellow guitarist McDonald smiled a lot with glee.

â€˜Got it Badâ€™ was played mid set, and the slow, building track was a perfect lead-in (as it is on the record) to single â€˜Too Little, Too Lateâ€™, which cut like a knife with its staccato riffs and girl gang tough confrontational lyrics.

Setlist

â€˜Girls Like Usâ€™ led into a brief stanza from 80â€™s classic â€˜Girls Just Want to Have Funâ€™ and the band finished the evening with a somewhat surprising cover of The Misfitsâ€™ Hybrid Momentsâ€™, a â€˜90s song that has previously been done by Blink 182, Green Day, and others, clearly showing their punk influences and that thick garage-y sound.

A mostly fun performance from a deceptively simple and still-developing band that launches their own sound from their many influences, and plays like their best work, is still to come.

The Smashing Pumpkins setup was pretty amazing. They had this gigantic white ball (think Rover from the Prisoner only one hundred time its size and you get the idea) with video and images projected on it.
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It's throwback Thursday as Chicago's The Smashing Pumpkins will be in Minneapolis at the Pantages Theatre. I believe these are side shows that Billy Corgan has booked on his days off from his co-headline The End Times tour with Marilyn Manson.

We previously caught Smashing Pumpkins when they were on tour for their Oceania in 2012, and honestly, it was one of the most impressive visual tour setup we've ever seen. Simply unforgettable.

This upcoming Pantages Theatre is said to be a more personal, low key show, as Billy Corgan will be playing mostly acoustic version of his hit songs.

The synthpop band, Neon Trees, will be featured on the Late Show With David Letterman on CBS tonight, May 10th. The brief biography I got is that the had a major hit with their single, "Animal", which recently went platinum
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Manchester all-female four-piece PINS (Faith Vern, Anna Donigan, Lois Macdonald and Sophie Galpin) will be in town at the 7th Street Entry in Minneapolis, in support of their new album Wild Nights, via Bella Union. Wild Nights is the follow-up to PINS' debut album Girls Like Us.